Um, sorry for the stress filled post from yesterday.  It is not all doom and gloom.  My attitude is to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward with my eyes firmly down the road. 

I am avoiding getting involved in the gossip and speculation at work regarding the stuff going on.  I have firm trust that things will work out.  They usually do. 

Some positive things have been happening as well.  There is a team of experts on adult autism coming to work with us (ME!) in setting up a new program for the eastern half of PA.  I was interested in this before they came yesterday to explain what it actually is but I am excited now.  I will get to work with them in helping adults with autism and their families identify the diagnosis and also get to help implement behavioral interventions that may help them have more fulfilling lives without unnecessary medications.

This is so cool.  It's a new facet to my job (which makes me a bit more valuable as an employee) that will add some interest.  I will also get to learn a new skill set which is never a bad thing.  The folks coming in are laid back and treated me with respect even though I don't have the level of formal education they have (which had me a bit intimidated.  experience is good but education is king in this field).  They listened to me and accepted my thoughts and ideas as valuable.  That was important because it is demoralizing to work with people who think that because you don't have a string of letters after your name that your thoughts can't possibly have merit or value.  Ask me how I know this.  You learn quickly to keep your mouth shut. 

These folks listened eagerly and seemed to be really interested in what I had to say.  And since I will be the constant here, (the doctor that was supposed to be working with us is the one leaving so I'll be breaking in a new doctor at the same time), it'll help a lot.  Like I said, it's exciting.  Adults with autism (or any intellectual disability) are an underserved population here.  Children are given services of all kind but as soon as the person hits 22, the services go away.  It leaves families and individuals with no where to go. 

I have two weeks to brush up my (admittedly scarce) knowledge of autism in adults.  I know people but now I have to learn symptomology.

And voila!  Elanor's socks.  The pattern is Monkey socks and the yarn is one of the artwalk club yarns (I think a Dali but I'm not sure).  These took a while since I got distracted and played with other projects.  I had some project ADD for a while and flitted about from one to another.  I am focusing on catching up with El's socks and finishing a baby sweater and then I'll work on some other wips to wrangle them into some sort of order.  I don't know if I'll have time for socks for everyone this christmas but I'll have to start working on it soon if it's going to happen.

This eggplant was part of this week's farm share.  Kate and I laughed and laughed at it's nose.  It has a nose!  I've seen photos of vegetables with protruberances but never had one of my own.  This made me inordinately happy for some reason.

The farm share has been fun, although that sounds odd to say.  I take my bags and walk across the street on Thursday afternoons and they give me a box of things and a dozen eggs and some kind of local cheese.  It's like opening a present each week since I never have any idea what's going to be inside. There have been vegetables we already know we don't like (like the turnips last week.  I just can't make myself like turnips) but they have been few and far between.  We got some gorgeous tomatoes this week and some fresh ricotta cheese.  I've never seen fresh ricotta and this is so much drier than what we usually buy in the store.  I'm going to make something with pasta for dinner and use this to see how it works.  It's milder in flavor and is curd-like instead of creamy.

The share we signed up for ends in November and we are thinking of extending it into the winter share.  I know it will be a lot of squash and gourds but I think it will still be fun.  I like the idea of helping to support local farms which are becoming fewer and fewer. 

I'm off to apply noxious chemicals to my roots and put clean sheets on my bed and dust and sweep my bedroom and do the laundry.  It's 96% humidity and the temps are already climbing so the earlier I get these things done, the better for me.  I can then sit and knit or maybe spin (but with all that humidity, I'd probably end up wearing more roving than spinning it because it will stick to my skin!) while Pk finishes the last bit of work on the car.  We're going to try to start it today.  After many minor and very irritating hurdles, it's mostly back together and if it starts, we'll turn it over to a professional mechanic to give it a once over and new brakes and put the new tires on and then we'll be good to go. 

Cross your fingers!